


Remade In Its Antique Pattern

by Lanerose



Category: Mulan (1998)
Genre: Adventure, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21842158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanerose/pseuds/Lanerose
Summary: Mulan is off on an adventure again.  Mushu and Cri-Kee can come, too.
Relationships: Fa Mulan/Li Shang
Comments: 10
Kudos: 107
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Remade In Its Antique Pattern

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sundrangea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sundrangea/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, Shanynde! Thank you for the prompt - I loved that it was so open-ended and I hope that you like what I came up with!

Fa Li had been asleep when her daughter stole away under cover of darkness to head into a war. She unfortunately was not asleep now.

“Mulan,” she said, grabbing her daughter’s hand, “you cannot mean to do this. It is not safe.”

“It’s perfectly safe, Mother,” Mulan replied as she tied her father’s sword – her sword – to the side of her saddle. “You will not even notice that I am gone.”

“So she says,” Grandmother Fa chimed in, “but that only goes to show how much we have to teach her.”

“Ancestors…” Fa Zhou replied, sighing and looking towards the sky.

Mulan finished packing and through her arms around each member of her family in turn. She gave her mother an extra long squeeze and quickly pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Don’t worry,” Mulan said, “I’ll be right back.”

~

“So,” Mushu said as they headed out of town, “where are we going, anyway?”

“It’ll be a surprise!” Mulan replied, her voice lilting upwards. Cri-Kee chirped cheerfully.

~

“No, but seriously, “ Mushu asked again as they cross the Yangtze River, “where are we headed?”

“What’s the matter, Mushu?” Mulan splashed a little water his way. “Is a fire dragon like you afraid to get wet?”

“Scared to get – who you talkin’ ‘bout, scared to get wet?” Mushu huffed. “I’m a dragon. DRAGON! I ain’t scared of no water.”

Cri-Kee chirped once more, looking pleased with itself.

“Don’t you start, grasshopper,” Mushu grumbled, tucking his tail tightly around himself. “I could eat you for dinner.”

~

Darkness hid the path that wound in its ascent to the Great Wall. It did not, however, slow the path of a rider on the way up. The figure was slight of stature, bent low to the horse, and covered in a warm green cloak that hid any features from anyone who might be observing at that early hour of the day.

“Hey, Mulan?” Mushu said, clearing his throat from where he sat on Khan’s back. Around them, the sound of Khan’s hoof-beats echoed through the forested hills and down into the valley. “I said, hey, Mulan? Are you finally ready to tell me where we’re going? And why are we doing this in the dark?”

“Shhh,” she hushed, drawing her hood tighter. 

“This is the problem with spending time asleep,” Mushu grumbled, “ain’t no one there to tell you what happened in between when you woke up.”

“Be quiet, Mushu,” Mulan said, urging Khan faster. The large black stallion responded, leaning into the turns and hurrying upwards until at length they drew even with a high stone tower. Mulan dismounted quickly, looping Khan’s reins around a nearby post before she began to hurry up the tower stairs.

“Hey, is it just me, or – “

“SHHHH!” Mulan hissed, scooping Mushu up and wrapping her hands around his face. “If you don’t stop making so much noise, you’ll wake the – “

“Who goes there?!”

“ – guards.”

Mulan leaned back into the shadows of the outpost stairs, her cloak swirling close as she tucked Mushu close against her. At the end of the hall, a figure struck a candle to light. 

“You see anyone?” A second voice, higher than the first, inquired. Mulan breathed shallowly, heart in her throat. The shadow took two steps closer, the light from his candle approaching the hem of her cloak.

“No, must have just been the wind,” the first voice replied. The light withdrew, heading slowly back to where it had come from. 

Mulan grabbed an official watchman’s outfit from the storage bin and carefully, quietly switched into it. Once changed, she crept slowly through a nearby doorway, out onto the wall, her own garments stowed out of a sight in a rucksack. She straightened her shoulders, taking a stiff posture as she climbed the uneven stairs to the next guardhouse.

“Hey,” Mushu hissed quietly after scrambling up to her shoulder, “isn’t this where Shang is stationed? Why are you being so secretive? Couldn’t we just tell the guards that we’re here to see him?”

Mulan laughed softly. “If we told him we were coming, then it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“So?” Mushu replied. He sat on her shoulder and crossed his arms. “Seems to me like it would be a whole lot less risky to just let him know that you’re on your way.”

Mulan shook her head as she dodged quickly through the next guardhouse. 

“Where’s the fun in that?” she said, once clear of the guardhouse. On the other side, she headed up a smooth path to the next set of stairs. She took them rapidly, repeating the process with a swift ease despite the deliberately choppy arrangement of the wall.

“You know,” Mushu murmured as she approached the final guardhouse, where Li Shang would typically stay, “maybe I was wrong about this whole thing. You’re almost at your destination and you’re not even – “

Mulan gasped as a hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her up short.

“Trespassers are not welcomed here kindly,” General Li said sharply. Then he smiled. “So it’s a good thing that my men recognized your horse and sent a messenger on ahead.”

“Shang!”

“Now, come on, don’t be upset,” Li Shang replied, wrapping her up in his arms even as she struggled to break his hold. “My men were so embarrassed after the last time you snuck in here that they trained extra hard for a month to improve their skills.”

He bent and kissed her before releasing her at last.

“Well, I suppose if something good came of it,” she said. She leaned up, her hand gently against his chest as she kissed him in return. “It’s good to see you, husband.”

“And you, wife. Now come inside, it’s cold out.”

Shang wrapped an arm (and part of his cloak, coincidentally) around her and urged her forward. They stepped into the last of the guardhouses, highest on the mountain. Through the window, Mulan could see the first blossom of dawn beginning to light the sky. She walked over to a nearby brassier and held her hands out to its warmth.

“I am honored, that the great Li Mulan should come to visit me,” he said. He stepped around the table near the brassiere and began to pour tea for the both of them. “What urgent mission has sent you riding all night to see me thus?”

“Maybe I just wanted to see you?” Mulan replied, smiling as the steam rolled upwards from the cups, a slight scent of jasmine entering the air.

Shang paused in pouring to give her a look. She laughed.

“I have news,” she replied.

“And what’s that?” Shang asked, once more tilting the kettle forward.

“We’re going to have a child soon. Shang, stop!”

The water from the kettle spilled over from the cups and onto the table. Mulan reached out and grabbed Shang’s hand, tilting it back down and smiling in delight at her husband’s poleaxed expression. On the floor nearby, Mushu was not doing much better.

“I – uh – you mean – you – “

“Is the great Li Shang at a loss for words?” 

“A baby? A baby!”

Shang threw the kettle behind him, knocking over a rack of swords. He dashed back around the brasserie, scooping Mulan up and swinging her around. At last he set her back down on her feet, leaning down to kiss her again.

“A baby,” he whispered, resting his forehead against hers. 

Mushu wiped a tear from his eye as he said to Cri-Kee, “Look at my baby, all grown up and having babies of her own.”

Cri-Kee chirped once more.

“What do you mean you knew? And you didn’t tell me?! Me, your best friend?! Aww, Cri-Kee, I don’t – “

And in the distance, the sun crested over the horizon to light a new day.

**Author's Note:**

> “Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.” ~ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray


End file.
